MARKUS GUENTNER
if a childs nursery features not a tin drum but two turntables including a mixer, the occupant is most certainly not preparing for some kind of folkloristic brass band event in his contemplative bavarian hometown of regensburg
the specialised press calls markus guentner -- who is a renowned minimal and ambient musician as well as a dj the inventor of pop ambient. for quite a while hes been creating his tracks in his home town of regensburg but they are now equally popular with cologne label kompakt and mathias schaffhaeusers ware imprint.
since his debut album in moll (2001) guentners tracks have increased in groove and grew into the smooth tech-house-tracks on the successor audio island, which appeared two years later. his remix of the talk talk classic such a shame ended up on the turntables of djs around the globe. and just like his songs, markus guentner is a popular guest in clubs across the usa, asia and europe.
in 2005, markus guentner released his third album 1981. each of the eight album tracks easily runs for seven minutes and largely gets along without beats. this is ambient music at its purest.
at the end of the year, a rework album called underarms/sideways was published on the legendary british label 4ad and represented a continuous ambient production for the hero of the indie shoegaze label ivo russel-watts aka the hope blister.
in march 2006, the ware-album lovely society was released. on this album, the artist once again published his latest 4-2-the-floor tracks, the same as hes been doing since 2001, but for the first time he also proved vehemently that his understanding of house and techno goes way beyond dub and minimal house.
spex magazine describes guentner as a minimalist metropolis refuser, who thanks to his affinity to ambient and shoegazing pop and indie manages to put works into the world that are extremely smart from a popcultural perspective.
however, markus guentner intends to achieve more than to just make music from regensburg. since last year hes been the co-host of a regular club event called sublime, which aims to unite indie, shoegaze and electronica under the same mirror ball.
at the end of 2007 his new album will be released on the brand new cocoon-sublabel 'silence'. so keep your eyes and ears open ... 
